


5 Tries

by kutsushita



Category: 15 明刹工業高校ラグビー部 | 15 - Meisetsu Kougyou Koukou Rugby Bu
Genre: M/M, Multi, Rugby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 04:46:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2800079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kutsushita/pseuds/kutsushita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's no chance of winning if only one person is playing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Tries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Qem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/gifts).



The ball was in the scrum. Ten-year-old Ebina Yui held his small body taut, legs firm against the muddy grass, ready to spring into motion the instant the scrum-half scooped up the ball. It was only a practice match, but his body was thrumming with excitement. More than anything, he wanted to try the new passing technique he and Mao had been practicing together, wanted to see if they could make it work in an actual game.

The ball came out and went to the number 8 instead. His team's scrum-half and fly were already moving, and Yui was moving too, running away from the scrum towards touch, but with his head turned and eyes focused on the ball as his teammates began stringing passes together. He kept alert so that as soon as he received the ball he could run forward toward the opposing line. The fly-half was tackled with the ball but Mao was behind the buck and the the ball came out quickly, landing in his arms. And then Mao ran.

Yui was running too, now flying up the pitch, eyes glued to Mao but not losing sight of the oncoming defenders either. One of them ran to intercept Mao, lowering his shoulders to go for the tackle, and Yui shouted out his friend's name. 

Mao flinched as the defender impacted with his body, but he'd been ready even before the call had left Yui's mouth. Yui brought his arms in to steady the ball as he received it smoothly. There were two defenders near and closing in on him. He sidestepped one, the player going down hard as he tackled the empty space where he thought Yui's body was going to be. The other player saw through the move and darted around to the other side. Yui glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Mao had recovered from the earlier tackle and was sprinting up the pitch several metres to his right. He reached out as if to pass the ball.

The defender fell for it, shifting his weight to follow the direction of the expected pass, and Yui quickly retracted his arms still clutching the ball and dodged the diverted tackle, the dummy giving him the chance to run around the player and continue his progress up the pitch. Mao was still running too, and when several more defenders came to bear in on Yui, he passed again, for real this time, the ball sailing smoothly back and landing solidly in Mao's grip.

They were past the 22 now, only the fullback and two wings remaining between them and the goal line. One of the wings was bearing down on Mao, and Yui yelled, darting over to get in a good position to receive the pass, but the other wing was dashing between them to intercept. And then—

Mao planted a hand on the player's shoulder as he dove in for the tackle, somehow pushing with enough force to pull his legs out of the player's grip and vault awkwardly over his shoulders. The player went down behind him but Mao didn't land steadily, stumbling and trying to regain his footing. The other defending wing diverted course to close in on him as he slowed down.

"Mao!!" Yui yelled. And Mao turned, saw Yui, and passed the ball back right before the tackle bowled him over. Yui sprinted forward. Only the fullback was there, the last line of defense, and for a kid the same age as them he looked pretty large and well-muscled. With that build, he could surely tackle with a lot of force.

But he couldn't move as fast as Yui, who sidestepped once more to throw him off, then dashed for the line, feeling the fullback's hands grazing his ankles as he dove, driving the ball and his body into the ground behind the goal line.

"TRY!!!"

Yui lay panting in the dirt as his team finished the run up toward him, piling around him in celebration. The adrenaline and exhilaration ran through him as they cheered congratulations and thumped him on the head and shoulders, and Yui tried to catch his breath, turning his head and seeking out the teammate he most wanted to see.

Mao was panting just as hard, and his uniform was covered in mud, but grinning widely at the same time. Yui couldn't help grinning back just as big, and when the rest of their other teammates finally got up off of him, Yui grasped the hand Mao extended to him to pull himself up to his feet, and then further to be pulled forward into a giddy embrace with his friend.

"It worked!" Yui yelled, grinning into Mao's face.

"Of course it did!" Mao returned with attempted smugness, though he couldn't hide his genuine enthusiasm. "I'm the one who thought of it!" Which caused Yui to smack him in the side of the head, but there wasn't any real force in it, and both of them giggled in elation at their success.

"The real test will be if we can pull it off a second time," Mao said excitedly as the two of them jogged to the side of the pitch to wait for the conversion.

"With the two of us together, there's no way they can stop us!" said Yui. 

  


* * *

  


"It's my fault," muttered Mao, glaring down at the ground, tears brimming in his eyes.

"What?" asked Yui. The two of them were waiting near the entrance to Shouma High for Yui's parents to pick them up after their failed entrance interview. "What do you mean? They said we weren't good enough to get into Shouma, both of us..." He forced a smile onto his face. "But that's fine! We'll go to another school. We'll—"

"Shut up!" Mao stomped his foot on the ground and pivoted on it, turning to glare at Yui, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "Shut up! Don't say it! It doesn't matter if we play for another school. We're never going to get to Hanozono! Stop forcing me to be a part of your ridiculous dreams!"

Yui stared at his friend, mouth hanging open, shocked by the sudden outburst. "Wh... What are you saying? They're not... They're not _my_ dreams." A burst of anger spiked suddenly in his chest. "Those were _our_ dreams! They still are! We both want to go to Hanozono together! You said—"

"It doesn't matter what I said!" Tears spilled down Mao's cheeks. "It was all stupid. I shouldn't ever have tried to stay together with you. I should have just gone to another school. I shouldn't have wanted—" He stopped suddenly, looking shocked for some reason, then snapped his mouth shut and turned his head away.

"Mao..." Yui reached a hand out and lightly touched Mao's shoulder, but his friend angrily shrugged the hand off and kept his back turned. Yui didn't know what to say; didn't understand whatever Mao was feeling.

The uncomfortable silence that stretched between them was broken only by the quiet sounds of Mao's sniffling, until finally Yui gathered his resolve again and spoke once more. "Mao, listen. We don't have to give up. We can still join a good team together, and we can still make it to Hanozono. You'll see. I promise, if you just follow me, if you just try..."

Mao barked out a loud abrupt laugh, but finally turned back around. His cheeks were tear-streaked and his eyes were red but he was no longer crying. "Of course," he said bitterly. "Of course I'll follow you. What else am I supposed to do?"

Yui didn't understand what he had done or said wrong. "Mao—" he started, and reached out a hand again, but Mao abruptly walked toward him. Yui braced himself and squeezed his eyes shut, thinking for a second that Mao was going to hit him, but instead he just continued walking past him.

"Your parents are here," Mao muttered. Turning, Yui could see the familiar car pulling up in front of the school. "Come on, let's go."

Yui went. 

  


* * *

  


Mao didn't see the point of trying any more, not in a game like this one against Takase Foundation. For a moment there it was like they were kids again, just him and Yui, fitting together perfectly, back the way things used to be. They flew up the pitch in unison, and Mao drove the ball into the ground for the try and it was electric, and for a moment he felt like maybe things could really be like that again. Maybe he could allow himself to hope, maybe they could really make it to Hanozono, maybe he and Yui could...

And then Takase turned it around, and crushed them. And Mao remembered that feeling, the same feeling he'd had when Shouma turned them down, when he heard people whisper that it was his fault. It was the same ache he felt around Yui all the time, now. So when Yui yelled his name and threw the ball his way again, Mao thought, _What's the point? Why am I even still playing rugby? Why am I still following Yui after all this time?_

But then that new kid, Akira... Somehow, impossibly, all by himself, he did it. He scored a try. He shouldn't have been able to do it, not against all of Takase's defensive line, not by himself or even with the rest of the team, as lousy as they were compared to Takase. And yet that didn't matter. He did it anyway. And then he declared that he would always be by Yui's side, and Mao felt a pang of something hot and ugly go through him.

_That's supposed to be me._

He didn't know why he went back to the school grounds later, when they didn't even have practice and he wasn't sure that the team would even still _exist_ after that game. But he went, and then everyone was there, and Yui was crying and hugging the whole team and babbling about his dream to go to Hanozono together. And calling Akira a hero.

Mao left, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. It wasn't his dream any more. He wasn't the hero. Yui didn't need him.

He'd given up. It was someone else's turn to try. 

  


* * *

  


"Here," said Yui, swinging his leg over the bicycle crossbar. "Get on."

Akira's face lit up and a grin spread across it. "Really?! I don't have to run this time?"

Yui kept his gaze fixed in front of him, not looking back at the younger boy, but his ears turned a little bit pink. "Sure. Just get on before I change my mind." Akira wasted no time at that, scrabbling onto the back of the bike and awkwardly holding on to the back of Yui's seat to try to steady himself. His fingers kept slipping off as he tried to find purchase and the bike started to wobble with his shifting weight. 

"Here, just—" Yui grounded himself with his right foot and reached around to grab Akira's arm, pulling it around his waist. "It'll be easier to keep your balance this way," he muttered.

"Ah, okay!" said Akira. He brought his other arm around and gripped onto Yui's waist tightly, knowing the importance of having a good stance to keep one's balance. "Is this okay?" he asked the back of Yui's head.

"Y-yeah, sure," said Yui. The tips of his ears were even pinker, and Akira smiled at them sweetly and then leaned forward against Yui's warm back. Yui shifted his weight and pulled his leg up to position it on the pedal. "Okay, I'm going now."

Yui didn't talk during the ride to his place, so Akira didn't say anything either, just rested against Yui's body warm and solid in front of him, keeping him steady.

Yui's room was familiar enough by now, Akira being invited over there frequently these days to browse through Yui's extensive rugby media collection and discuss team strategy. The two of them sat on the floor with their backs leaned against the side of Yui's bed, looking at a couple of the newest magazines Yui had picked up.

Out of nowhere, Akira sighed loudly. "What is it?" Yui asked, not glancing up from the magazine he was thumbing through.

"It, it's just..." As Akira trailed off, Yui glanced over quickly out of the corner of his eye and saw the younger boy staring down at the glossy pages with a deep frown. It seemed to be an article about improving defense. "I might be a good kicker, but am I really good enough to be the fullback? I..." Akira shrugged his shoulders up and pulled his knees in toward himself. "I'm so small. How am I ever going to stop opposing players from breaking through our line?"

Yui put his magazine down and turned to regard his teammate. "You've been practicing tackles and doing strength training with everyone else on the team, haven't you?"

"Well, yes... But I'm... No matter how much I train, it won't make my body frame any bigger!"

"There's nothing you can do about that, so you shouldn't worry about it." Yui was resolute.

"But... How can I help the team with defense, then? There are lots of other good players out there with really good attacks. Like that try you and Mao-senpai scored together in our match against Takase."

Yui blinked. "Mao?" His stomach gave a little twist, and he remembered the last time they'd really talked, after watching the match in Tokyo. They'd talked, but they hadn't really resolved anything. "What are you talking about? You scored an amazing try too, all on your own."

"Ahahaha." Akira lifted a hand up behind his head and blushed while he laughed. "Well, I mean, maybe I just got lucky. I didn't really know what I was doing."

Yui scoffed. "Don't say that. You were amazing." He leaned a bit closer to Akira. "Didn't I tell you that you're my hero?" he said, eyes going half-lidded as he stared into the other boy's face, and Akira's expression shifted too, eyes falling to Yui's lips.

This was still new, mouths sliding together hesitantly, something they'd only tried before once or twice But with Akira pressing up against him and humming excitement into his mouth, Yui knew in his gut that it was the right thing. They fit so well together, worked perfectly together just like— Just like he'd always wanted to, with someone. 

Yui held Akira a little bit tighter and kissed him soundly, and did not think about Mao. 

  


* * *

  


"It'll be fun!" Makoto had bellowed back in the clubroom. "It'll be a good team-building exercise! Besides, you grouchy second-years need to lighten up once in a while!"

The second years, of course, had put up the token protest.

"Who are you calling grouchy?" Jun had demanded.

"Yeah, screw you!" Madoka and Kaoru had replied automatically in near-harmony.

But as always, no one could resist Hiromi. "Now, now!" he'd chided, throwing an arm around both of them. "Let's not spoil the team unity! It'll be fun!" He'd turned and fixed Madoka with a smile. "Besides Madoka, you're in a band, right?"

"Uhhh..."

After that, there was no stopping it.

"...AND SO BEGINS THE FIRST ANNUAL MEISETSU RUGBY CLUB KAROKE PARTY!" Madoka and Kaoru now cheerfully proclaimed to the entire team, who had somehow managed to pack themselves together in a single private karaoke room.

Everything would have been fine, except—Yui doesn't know quite how it happened—that somehow, he ended up sandwiched in-between Akira and Mao.

"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Akira, pointing excitedly at the list of songs. "Let's do this one, Mao-senpai! My grandmother used to sing it to me all the time!"

"Sure, why not," said Mao in a practiced bored tone. Yui rolled his eyes, knowing for a fact that Mao actually loved singing.

What he didn't know was why Mao was acting so warm toward him today.

"Hey idiot," Mao said, hitting Yui on the side of the head with his microphone. "Go tell them to add this song to the queue."

Well, maybe warm wasn't quite the right word. But something was definitely different.

"Ah, Yui." Mao looked up at Yui as he returned from requesting the song, after shuffling past the others crowding the room to get to his seat. Akira was momentarily distracted, being chattered at by the other two first years who had apparently crawled across the room under the table.

"What?" Yui asked, still feeling a little off-balance, not used to a Mao who suddenly talked to him normally again.

"Would you go get Akira and me another set of drinks?" Well, apparently normal meant Mao was going to continue treating him like an errand boy. Yui sighed and began to turn back around, when Mao smirked and tacked on, "Your boyfriend said he's thirsty."

Yui froze. "What—"

"Yui!" Makoto suddenly appeared, throwing his arm around Yui's shoulder and shoving a microphone in his face. "What's wrong? I don't think you've sang anything yet tonight. Come on, you're not allowed to sit this one out! Sing!"

Yui's felt like his face was probably beet red by now, though thankfully Makoto wouldn't know the real reason for it. Mao was still smirking up at him, his head slightly tilted to the side, but his eyes seemed like they were growing cold. And Akira was apparently just now turning to look at the three of them, distracted from his conversation with the other first-years by Makoto's loud yelling. Akira's wide bright eyes latched onto his own and Yui saw the confusion and concern in Akira's face as he surely noticed how red Yui was turning.

"I'll be right back with the drinks," Yui muttered, ducking out from under Makoto's arm and going for the door. Makoto yelled a protest behind him and seemed to make an aborted attempt to tackle him in the tiny confines of the room. Yui dodged easily, slamming the door in Makoto's face.

Ordering and retrieving the drinks was at least somewhat of a distraction, but by the time he was about to reenter the room, Yui couldn't stop thinking about what Mao had said to him, and his hands started to sweat. Or maybe that was just the condensation from the glasses. But still, how had Mao known? Yui and Akira hadn't told anyone on the team, and Yui didn't _think_ they'd been obvious about it in front of anyone else. They hadn't even really done much yet, to be totally honest Yui wasn't completely sure they were really boyfriends... Neither of them had used that word, at least. Mao had been the first one to say it.

Inside the room, the song he'd put in the request for had apparently come up, because Akira and Mao were standing next to each other, crooning into a shared microphone. Yui had already known Mao had a good singing voice, and he and Akira sounded good together, singing with their bodies pressed closed to each other like that...

Several different feelings spiked in Yui's gut all at once, and he couldn't fully identify each one or even whether they were good or bad. He shook himself a little to break the moment he was frozen in, and squeezed past the others to retake his seat at the table next to Mao, setting the carefully balanced drinks down on the surface.

"Phew!" Mao let out a loud whoosh of breath when the song ended, stepping up onto the seat and walking around Yui's back to return to his previous spot, with Akira snuggling in close again on Yui's other side.

"That was fun!" Akira gushed excitedly across Yui to Mao. "Let's sing another one together!"

"I'd love to," said Mao, but Yui could tell from his voice that he didn't mean it. The smile on his face was just as fake. "But I think the two of you would do better without me anyway. So I'll just..." He moved to stand, and without thinking about it, Yui reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Don't," said Yui. "Stay." Added with a touch of desperation, "You know I'm tone deaf, anyway."

Mao let the smile fall and a scowl that was half a pout replaced it. "I came to this stupid thing, and I played nice. I haven't quit the team, like you asked. I even sang a duet with your _boy_ friend." He slouched in his seat, tugging his arm away a little. "What more do you want from me?"

Yui snapped his head around to look at the supposed mentioned boyfriend, and sure enough, Akira had definitely heard Mao say the b-word this time. His eyes as wide as saucers, Akira stuttered out, "M-Mao-senpai, w-what do you..."

"I'm sick of pretending," Mao said, trying to yank his arm out of Yui's grip. But Yui tightened his hand, and with all the emotions roiling through him, he suddenly saw the way through the line. He had to go for it.

"So stop pretending," he said. "Stop acting like you don't care all the time. Like we're not friends." He turned and fixed Mao with as steady a stare as he can manage. "Stop trying to be someone you're not." _We always worked so perfectly together._

Splotches of color bloomed in Mao's cheeks and his face scrunched up. Yui suddenly remembered what he looked like after they were turned down by Shouma together. "I don't want to be your friend," Mao whispered. It hit Yui like a blow, and stung, but then he looked at Mao's trembling face and hands and suddenly realized that's not exactly what Mao meant. And now Yui felt lost again, with no plan of attack, because he understood what Mao actually wanted from him, but it wasn't something he could give. He already had Akira.

Akira, who reached across Yui's lap and laid his small steady hand on top of one of Mao's trembling fists. Mao and Yui both jerked to stare at him, startled. Yui thought, _Maybe Akira doesn't actually understand what's going on here?_ and was about to open up his mouth to say something, when Akira spoke first.

"You're wrong, Mao-senpai."

Mao instantly bristled, although he didn't yank his hand away. "What the hell do you know? You don't even know what I—"

"You're giving up," Akira interrupted, his voice suddenly intense, like it had gone during the Takase match. "You think you've lost, so you aren't even going to try. You think it's not possible to win, but..." He tightened his grip on Mao, then reached out and joined his other hand with Yui's. Yui didn't resist, although he jumped a little in surprise when Akira lifted his own hand off Mao's and replaced it with Yui's, then covered their hands with both of his own. "You've forgotten that anything is possible if you trust your teammates. Your _friends_."

Yui and Mao both stared in shock at the ruck of hands Akira had created, then glanced at each other. Yui's face felt about as red as Mao's looked. "A-Akira..." Yui said, turning to the younger boy. "I, I know you didn't have a lot of people around you on the island you grew up on, but... I don't think these types of things really work like that..."

"Why not?" demanded Akira, his gaze hard, and Yui flinched involuntarily. He didn't know what it was about this kid, so wide-eyed and seemingly innocent one moment, then full of intense determination the next. Sometimes he seemed like a force of nature, like nothing or no one could actually stop him.

Yui expected Mao to say something next, and he was right, but what he didn't expect was for Mao to say in a slow, thoughtful voice, "Yeah... Why not?"

Yui turned around, mouth falling ajar. Mao was staring down at their joined hands again, but his face was clear now, contemplative instead of shocked. In fact, Yui saw the beginnings of a smirk tugging at Mao's lips.

"What do you mean, why not?!" Panic welled up in Yui. He could have held off one of them maybe, but if they both ganged up on him... Shit, he should have thought of this when he'd mused that these two would get along if they actually opened up to each other! "Do you understand what this guy seems to be suggesting?!"

"You're the one with all the impossible dreams," said Mao, and oh god, he was pressing closer and closer against Yui's side, leaning his head in toward his shoulder. Yui felt Akira's hand tighten on top of his as Mao whispered close to his ear, "Don't you think it's worth a try?"

Akira was still a weird kid from an island with no idea of how the world worked, but he was also a genius, and Yui trusted him. He trusted that with Akira on his side, he could find a way to break through any obstacles and make it to the goal. And Yui had known Mao even longer, and trusted him too, even when for so long it had seemed like their trust was broken.

_This is crazy_ , he thought, and, _The opposition is too strong._ But he was surrounded by his trusted teammates, his friends. Not just the two pressed close against him, but the rest of the team too, singing and laughing together in the small room. And with Akira's hand solid and warm on top of his, and Mao's head on his shoulder, Yui started to think that maybe it _was_ actually possible. Just like Hanozono. Maybe they could make it through, sidestep the defenders and see it clear to the goal line.

At least they could try.


End file.
